


Fever

by groaninlynch (orphan_account)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-06
Updated: 2012-10-06
Packaged: 2017-11-15 17:46:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/529959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/groaninlynch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One night, Derek Hale breathes in and there’s smoke in his lungs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fever

One night, Derek Hale breathes in and there's smoke in his lungs.

He opens his eyes and his house, his home, is on fire. It may be more accurate, though, to say that his home  _is_  the fire because he can't see anything but iridescent pillars of flame. The heat pushes against his face from where he's standing in the yard.

He can hear no voice nor heartbeat, only the snapping fire. A section of the roof crumbles in and sends up a cloud of smoke and debris. Derek stands there and watches it happen and does nothing.

To the side of the house, by the garden his mother loved and cultivated for years, a movement catches Derek's eye. Before he realizes it he's moving, walking over charred tulips and blackened rhododendrons. And he can hear a dull sound, the broken rhythm of a heartbeat desperately trying to cling to life.

His uncle is crawling through the dirt, covered with soot. Derek can still see that his skin has been ravaged by the fire. He looks alien in his bareness, not at all the man who clapped Derek on the shoulder before sending him out the door that morning to catch the bus.

"They're all dead," comes Peter's hoarse whisper. He coughs and coughs and coughs, digging his fingers into the ground. He's shaking. Derek doesn't touch him.

"No," says Derek.

Something brushes his wrist, making him try to flinch away. Cool fingers grab and hold him fast.

"It was you," Laura tells him. Her eyes are bright red, catching the shimmer of the fire.

"It was you," Peter chokes out. He seizes Derek's ankles, and his grip is strong, painful. Derek can't get away. Derek has no where to go.

"They're all dead," Peter repeats.

" _It was you_ ," Laura shrieks. Peter's claws bit into Derek's ankles in the same instant that Laura's extend into his wrist and Derek opens his mouth to shout but what comes out are the tormented screams of his family being burned alive.

Derek's eyes open to a metal ceiling. He breathes in. There's no smoke.

He turns his head and his pack is there, staring at him with varying levels of concern. Derek sits up from where he'd been sprawled across the subway car's seats.

"Derek--" Erica starts.

"We heard--" Boyd overlaps.

"Are you okay?" Isaac asks.

Derek clenches his jaw and stands, glaring down at them. "I'm fine."

Erica takes a step toward him. "But you were--" 

"I'm _fine,"_ Derek growls, his eyes flashing. That trick doesn't have the effect it used to because instead of visibly backing down, his pack just stares at him with worry and pity. Derek huffs and turns away, walking out of the subway car.

The screams, the feel of fire on his skin are still hanging at the fringes of his memory. Derek shakes his head. He's a little old to be having nightmares. 

(But then, that's what he tells himself every single time he has one.)


End file.
